


Time After Time

by Hobbit_Riddlebird



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Adult Losers Club (IT), Eventual Happy Ending, Explicit Language, First Crush, First Kiss, First Love, Fix-It, Flashbacks, Homophobic Language, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Richie Tozier Being an Asshole
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2020-10-19 02:14:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20649530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hobbit_Riddlebird/pseuds/Hobbit_Riddlebird
Summary: Yet another fix-it Reddie fic because they deserve it.Chapter One: Pov: Richie, Scene: The Jade of the Orient.Richie and Eddie remember the last time they saw each other before leaving Derry but some memories might be better left forgotten.Chapter Two: to be continued..Chapter Three: to be continued..





	Time After Time

**Author's Note:**

> I never thought I would find myself writing IT fan fiction in 2019 and yet here I find myself. I grew up loving this book and loving the classic (old) miniseries but the new movie (and especially the characters of Eddie and Richie) touched me in a way I didn't expect. As a LGBT kid who grew up in the 90s the Reddie arc really hit me hard. And I felt the need to give a little back in my own way.
> 
> This is my first fic in this fandom and I haven't read the book in years so I apologize for any inaccuracies and ooc moments. Consider this a canon/au if you will.
> 
> Warning for strong language. Richie is the pov character in this after all. Also some homophobic language. 
> 
> Author is over 21.

“You’re staring at me again,” Eddie frowns at Richie in that way he remembers finding so stupidly adorable when they were both twelve years old. “Is there something on my face?”

Was he staring? Yeah probably. Memory is funny, he thinks. He has had drunken benders, he has woken up in a hospital bed after an overdose, he has woken up in a cold sweat after a nightmare he could almost remember. But looking at Eddie it was as though he had never forgotten him. 

“Yeah, your mother’s cum,” Richie takes another drink. He feels well on his way to becoming good and truly drunk, not good. 

“I can’t believe you get paid to tell jokes that weren’t even funny when we were twelve,” he replies with a low blush on his cheeks that does not come from drink alone. “You haven’t grown up at all, have you Trashmouth?” 

“My jokes aren’t the only reason they call me Trashmouth, want me to show you?” he finishes his glass and reaches for the one in front of Eddie. “I’ll only be too happy to give a demonstration,” he winks, badly closing both eyes.

“Now I see why I chose to forget about you,” Eddie slides his glass away from Richie. “Were you always this, this, juvenelle?” he gestures towards Richie. 

“Beep-beep, Eddie my love noodle,” he bops Eddie’s nose with his finger and reaches around him for the glass, nearly spilling it in the other man’s lap. “We’re celebrating,” he holds the glass over their heads. “Let me make a toast to old friends and first love-.”

Eddie grabs the glass out of his hands knocking it accidently behind them. “You’re drunk,” he hisses. 

“And you are acting like my wife, Eddie ol’ ball and chain.” Richie puts his hand on the other’s thigh. “Unless you’re planning on taking me to the wedding chambers after dinner.” He leans forward.

“You know what, fuck you too,” Eddie slams his chair back and storms over to where Mike and Bill are talking quietly together. 

“I guess some things never change,” Bev chuckles softly on the other side of Richie.

“Don’t know what you mean,” he watches Eddie instead of turning toward Bev.

“You two, still pulling each other’s pigtails,” she slides her drink in front of him, instantly becoming his new best friend. “You two always arguing like an old married couple. The Loser’s very own Bert and Ernie.”

“Weren’t they brothers?” the drink started to taste sour.

“How the hell do I know? They were puppets.” Bev is deadpan. 

“Puppets with hands up their assholes,” he giggles. “Maybe they weren’t brothers after all.”

“Pretty sure they had twin beds,” she smiles.

“For the cameras, my dear Ms. Marsh, it was a kiddie’s show,” he lowers his voice. “Twin beds can easily be pushed together when the cameras are turned off. Or not, do you think there’s a market in Sesame Street for sex tapes?” 

“Beep-beep Richie,” Bev laughs. Her phone buzzes on the table, she looks down and frowns in something that could almost be named fear. “I have to go to the little puppet’s room.” She takes the phone with her. 

Alone again his eyes reach out for Eddie but he is not in the dining room. He stands up, he could use a cigarette anyway to clear his buzz a little. He waves at Ben on his way out and holds up his cigarette box to show he would be back, Ben nods.

The restaurant has become too loud and the contrasting smells coming from the different plates is starting to make him feel sick to his stomach. He pushes the door open and the fresh air hits him like a cold shower after a night of partying. 

He can hear Eddie speaking on his cell before he sees him.

“I had to come… it was a promise… No, of course I do… yes, even if it means… you don’t mean that… okay, maybe you do mean that… if you think that’s best… what am I supposed to say? Can we talk about this when I get back?... Of course I’m coming back… why would you say that?” Eddie looks up at Richie at the same time Richie spots him under the broken street lamp. He shrugs. “Richie? What are you doing... No, no, he’s just a… a friend,” he returns to the conversation over the phone. “Listen I have to go… we’re getting ready to leave… I’ll call you in the morning… Okay, I’ll call you when I get back. I lov-,” he finally trails off and puts the phone down. “Fuck.” 

“Trouble with Mommy?” Richie laughs harshly. 

“Don’t fucking start,” Eddie stalks towards him. “This is your fault. I don’t even know how but it’s your fault. Fuck remember that time you got me grounded for three weeks for sneaking out to see the fair, I didn’t even have fun, the porta potty would have glowed brighter than a whorehouse under ultraviolet, and I swear the cotton candy made me sick.”

“I thought I was the one with the nickname Trashmouth,” Richie laughs pulling out a cigarette. “Seems there must have been a mix-up.” In truth, he likes this new Eddie, he likes him a lot. “Maybe you should join my act, go on the road with me.” Share my hotel room, share my bed, fuck. This Eddie was everything he could have wanted in a man and everything he didn’t, namely he was a married man. “Wife probably wouldn’t like it though, am I right?”

“Wife probably wouldn’t care,” Eddie takes one of his cigarettes. “She’s filing for divorce in the morning.” 

Richie is not proud of the hope that springs in his tattered chest. “Not exactly bad news I take it?” 

“Not exactly surprising news, no,” he leans against the wall of the restaurant. “It’s a fucking relief to be honest. When my mother died, you had already gone, I came back to take care of her after the stroke, after she died I didn’t even cry, isn’t that horrible? I felt relieved that it was over, not her suffering, mine, I was relieved my suffering was over. I’m not a good son. Not a good husband. And the only true connection to anyone I ever felt were to those people inside that restaurant and I forgot them. How fucked up is that?” He blinks quickly as though surprised to have shared so much of himself.

Richie knows the feeling.

“What about outside the restaurant?” he flicks his lighter towards Eddie.

“Outside?” Eddie takes a puff of the cigarette and starts coughing. 

“Yeah, outside, do you feel that connection… with me?” he will blame the drinks and smokes the next day. 

“I remember you were my best friend,” Eddie smiles and shakes his head. “I wanted to be just like you, wanted you to think I was as cool as you. I hate these things,” he lifts the cigarette. “But didn’t want you to think I was an uncool little kid.” 

“I wasn’t cool, Eds,” he takes Eddie’s cigarette from him. “None of us were.” He puffs on the end, trying not to dwell on the fact that it had been between Eddie’s lips. Shit. He has him feeling like a preteen boy with a crush on his best friend again. 

“To me you were,” Eddie leans forward and Richie sees him as the boy he was the summer he fell for him. Which was all kinds of fucked up all things considered. Eddie touches his hand to take the cigarette back and… 

_ Richie was eighteen. Eddie hadn’t gone to work at the ice cream parlor and he wasn’t at home but he knew where to find him. Everyone else had already gone, Bill, Ben, Bev, Stan, had all left Derry by that point. And Mike was as good as gone. He hadn’t gone to the fort since Stan had left but he knew that was where he would find Eddie.  _

_ Him and Eddie had started to drift apart, okay fine, Richie had started to distance himself from him. He was an ass and a coward, he didn’t need anyone to tell him. But it would make saying good-bye to Eddie that much easier when the time eventually came. _

_ The others had promised to write and keep in touch and they had for a few months and then they hadn’t. He supposed it was all a part of growing up. But it hurt. He figured at least Stan would keep in contact but he had not answered one of Richie’s letters, not even one. And he didn’t want to make promises with Eddie that they wouldn’t keep. _

_ Eddie was sitting on the hammock that had fallen on the ground and had never been put back up. He held a piece of paper in his hands. _

_ “Eddie? Your mom called my house looking for you, says you’ve been missing since yesterday after work.” Richie sat on the ground next to him. “What’s up?” _

_ “Here,” he handed Richie the paper.  _

_ Richie read the first paragraph with a broken heart. “You’ve been accepted to the University of Arizona,” he read aloud. He shrugged and handed Eddie’s ticket out of Derry back to him. “So what you’re down here feeling sorry for yourself because you actually get out of this butthole town?” He was bitter even if it was what he had wanted for Eddie. _

_ “I’m not feeling sorry for myself,” Eddie brushed his hair back, he needed a haircut Richie noticed. “What about you, have you heard back from them yet?”  _

_ “My application was rejected,” he lied. _

_ “Did you even send it in, Richie?” Eddie could always see through his bullshit.  _

_ “Why so they could tell me I’m not good enough?” his temper threatened to get the better of him. “Can’t reject me if I don’t even send it in, right?”  _

_ “What are you going to do then?” Eddie kept his eyes down on the paper in his hands. “Stay in Derry until you’re as old as Old Man Walker. You were the one of us that couldn’t wait to leave.”  _

_ Richie had been staying until Eddie left but he wasn’t about to tell him that.  _

_ “Going to New York,” he confessed. “Try my hand at stand-up.”  _

_ “And what, get discovered by Saturday Night Live?” Eddie snorted.  _

_ “Maybe,” he shrugged. Truthfully he had given it no thought. _

_ “You’re messing everything up,” Eddie crumpled the paper in his fist. “We were supposed to go together. That was the promise.” _

_ “Then what, Eddie? Go to the same college, take the same classes, sleep in the same dorm, meet two beautiful sisters, get married and become brothers, go into some boring business together, Kaspbrak and Tozier on the letterhead. Maybe they can even bury us in the same plot when we die of old age, would you like that Eddie?” Richie took a deep breath before he started crying.  _

_ “Why are you being such an ass, Richie?” he would be happy to forget the hurt look on Eddie’s face. Eddie looked more like the man he would become but still like the little boy that had been his first crush.  _

_ “You are what you eat,” Richie laughed. “Be careful Eds or you’ll start to look like Mommy Dearest.” _

_ “If you aren’t going then… I’m not going either, I’ll come to New York with you,” Eddie nodded, determined as always. “There are some community colleges on the East Coast, as good as going to a university.”  _

_ Richie put his head in his hands. Of course Eddie had to make things difficult, it was one of the things he loved about him. He could almost see it, how many times had they talked about running away together but Eddie deserved better. Richie might be a selfish bastard but he wasn’t going to ruin Eddie’s chances.  _

_ “You don’t get it, do you Eddie?” he forced himself to look at his best friend. “It’s not just Derry I want to get away from. I want to forget all of it. Derry. My parents. The Losers. Pennywise. You. I want to forget you Eddie.”  _

_ Little did he know at the time that he would get his wish. _

_ “You don’t mean that… Richie, I…,” Eddie jerked forward and kissed Richie hard on the mouth. He talked big but it was his real first kiss, and it was with Eddie. He panicked, he pushed the smaller boy away and stood up. “Richie,” Eddie said his name. _

_ Richie wiped his mouth and started laughing hysterically. Eddie had kissed him! It was like one of Pennywise’s cruel tricks. ‘I know your secret… your secret… secret.’ Eddie got up to follow him. _

_ “I’m not a fag!” he put his hands over his ears and yelled out at the clown. He saw Eddie flinch and he wanted to hide under the floorboards.  _

_ “I just want us to stay together,” Eddie tried to put his hand on him, Richie knocked his hand away. “I don’t want to lose you too.”  _

_ “I’m not a faggot,” Richie twisted the knife in. “Guess it’s true what they say about Mama’s boys growing into faggots.”  _

_ The look of hatred on Eddie’s face would be the last thing he would remember from Derry when the memories started to fade like a bad nightmare.  _

_ “Screw you, Richie,” Eddie pushed him. _

_ “You wish,” Richie smirked.  _

_ “Bastard,” Eddie slapped him hard enough to knock his glasses off. He heard Eddie’s footsteps on the stairs leading up but by the time he got his glasses back on his face Eddie was long gone. _

_ And that was the last time he saw him until twenty-seven years later… _

And about three hours before right this moment.

“You bastard,” Eddie whispers, he looks like he wants to slap him again. He moves his hand like it still hurts. 

“You remembered that too, I’m guessing,” Richie tosses the cigarette away. “We should go back inside, the others are probably wondering where we are.” 

He goes back inside without seeing if Eddie follows him. 

**Author's Note:**

> When I started writing this fic I thought it would be a one-shot but then realized I wanted to split the narrative between Part 1 and Part 2 and possibly an epilogue or 2. So this will be at least a three part fic with an eventual happy ending. Promise.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
